The state of Vermont has a history of discriminating against faith-based schools. From excluding Rice Memorial High School and their students from its tuition assistance program because they were religious to barring access to its Dual Enrollment Program for students at those schools, Vermont has repeatedly violated the First Amendment.
Now, despite a federal appeals court victory and a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that Maine’s similar actions violated the First Amendment, Vermont is once again punishing a Christian school because of its beliefs. Alliance Defending Freedom is defending religious freedom in Vermont in the face of a new but related threat.
Mid Vermont Christian School is a private, Christian, pre-K through 12th-grade school in Quechee, Vermont. The school exists “to glorify God by preparing students for college and for life through a program of academic excellence established in Biblical truth.”
Mid Vermont Christian is a highly respected school that has excelled in both academics and athletics, and many families send their children to the school for these reasons. But that hasn’t stopped the state from targeting the school. In addition to threatening to exclude Mid Vermont Christian from Vermont’s Town Tuitioning Program, state officials outright banned the school from competing in middle school and high school sports because of the school’s religious beliefs and practices.
Benched for biblical beliefs
Vermont has excluded Mid Vermont Christian from both middle school and high school sports. The largest sports association for middle and high schools in the state is called the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA), and it has expelled Mid Vermont Christian, and then denied the school readmission, from all VPA sports because of the school’s beliefs and practices.
While the VPA‘s general policy is to separate boys’ and girls’ athletics and to prevent boys from competing in girls’ sports “to protect opportunities for girl athletes,” it recently adopted a new policy. The policy requires Vermont schools like Mid Vermont Christian to assign athletes to teams based on their “gender identity” rather than their actual sex, and it forces female athletes to compete in athletic events against males.
As a Christian school, Mid Vermont Christian believes that men and women are different and that sex cannot be changed. M.G., a student enrolled at Mid Vermont Christian who competes on the varsity girls’ basketball team, also holds these beliefs. But the new policy would force M.G., Mid Vermont Christian, and many other students and their families to violate their beliefs.
As a result of the VPA’s policy, a male athlete who is over six feet tall was allowed to compete on the high school girls’ basketball team at the Long Trail School in Dorset, Vermont, during the 2022-23 season.
Mid Vermont Christian was matched up against Long Trail in the first round of the 2023 VPA Division 4 Girls State Basketball tournament. The school alerted the VPA that it had concerns over playing against the male athlete, but the VPA denied Mid Vermont Christian’s request for a conversation. So Mid Vermont Christian chose to forfeit the game instead of violating its beliefs and sacrificing students’ safety. Shortly thereafter, the VPA announced it would immediately suspend Mid Vermont Christian from competing in all sports and activities.
The VPA first failed to provide Mid Vermont Christian with a notice of alleged violations, thereby ignoring its own policies. And then the association submitted testimony hostile to the school’s beliefs to the Vermont legislature. Mid Vermont Christian appealed its expulsion internally at the VPA, but to no avail.
Defending religious freedom
In November 2023, ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit against Vermont officials on behalf of Mid Vermont Christian. After a district court denied the school’s injunction request that would have allowed it readmission into the VPA for all sports, ADF attorneys appealed the case to the 2nd Circuit.
Religious schools and their families should not have to abandon their religious beliefs and practices to participate in public benefits programs like state-sponsored school athletics. Female athletes should not be forced to compete against males, and state agencies cannot force religious schools to violate their beliefs to be included in a sports league.
A win for Mid Vermont Christian would ensure that religious schools in Vermont can operate consistent with their religious beliefs about sexuality and gender without facing government punishment.
Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders
- February 2023: Mid Vermont Christian forfeited a girls’ basketball game against a girls’ team with a male player. The forfeit knocked Mid Vermont Christian out of the state tournament.
- March 2023: The VPA immediately suspended Mid Vermont Christian from all athletic and academic competitions and sought to expel the school permanently.
- May 2023: The VPA’s Activity Standards Committee denied Mid Vermont Christian’s appeal of its expulsion.
- September 2023: Mid Vermont Christian sought readmission to the VPA, but the VPA requested the school explain how it would comply with the VPA’s gender identity policies.
- November 2023: ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mid Vermont Christian, some students, and their families.
- June 2024: A federal district court denied the request for injunctive relief. ADF attorneys filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
- August 2024: ADF attorneys filed their opening brief with the 2nd Circuit.
- April 2025: ADF attorneys delivered oral argument at the 2nd Circuit on Mid Vermont Christian’s request for injunctive relief against the VPA.
